The notorious traveler and conqueror Giacomo Casanova recounts his journeys – during his escape from his homeland, Venice – across Northern Europe, mocking the authorities he encounters. He focuses on a pivotal incident that took place in Warsaw. Insulted by a Polish count because of an Italian ballerina, Casanova is forced to challenge his opponent to a duel, and the sequence of events as well as the consequences are described with enthusiasm by the narrator.

An unconventional autobiographical narrative from one of the most iconic figures of eighteenth-century Europe, The Duel is presented here with an excerpt about the same event from Casanova's memoirs, written fifteen years later.